Tropical deforestation is associated with considerable heat-related mortality

C. L. Reddington (), C. Smith, E. W. Butt, J. C. A. Baker, B. F. A. Oliveira, E. I. Yamba and D. V. Spracklen
Additional contact information
C. L. Reddington: University of Leeds
C. Smith: University of Leeds
E. W. Butt: University of Leeds
J. C. A. Baker: University of Leeds
B. F. A. Oliveira: Oswaldo Cruz Foundation
E. I. Yamba: Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology
D. V. Spracklen: University of Leeds

Nature Climate Change, 2025, vol. 15, issue 9, 992-999

Abstract: Abstract Tropical deforestation induces local warming and is a potential human health risk, having been linked to elevated human heat stress and reduced safe outdoor working hours. Here we show deforestation-induced local warming is associated with 28,000 (95% confidence interval: 23,610–33,560) heat-related deaths per year using a pan-tropical assessment. Analysis of satellite data shows tropical deforestation during 2001–2020 exposed 345 million people to local warming with population-weighted daytime land surface warming of 0.27 °C. Estimated heat-related mortality rates are greatest in Southeast Asia (8–11 deaths for every 100,000 people living in deforested areas) followed by tropical regions of Africa and the Americas. In regions of forest loss, local warming from deforestation could account for over one third of total climate heat-related mortality, highlighting the important contribution of tropical deforestation to ongoing warming and heat-related health risks within the context of climate change.

Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-025-02411-0 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcli:v:15:y:2025:i:9:d:10.1038_s41558-025-02411-0

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/nclimate/

DOI: 10.1038/s41558-025-02411-0

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Climate Change is currently edited by Bronwyn Wake

More articles in Nature Climate Change from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().